A segment of our political class needs to get its act in order.

Enough playing around.  We need to see them walk the talk and not tap-dance politics, especially when the issue at hand is so basic.

The theme in question here is voting at sixteen years of age.

An exemplary commitment was that shown by the Government when one of the first measures to headline its agenda as soon as it assumed power was to implement the commitment taken in the political manifesto to ensure that the voting age in Local Government elections will go down to 16 years of age. I must say that this was an initiative that was taken on-board very well by young people and to be totally honest I expected much more resistance from the community at large.  What was good about this initiative is that all political parties were in agreement on this one.

Granted, it was a historic milestone of vital proportions and needs to be documented as such. 

However, as far as I’m concerned the decision to invite young people to vote in the Local Government elections is not good enough. 

This patronising talk on ‘using’ these Local Council Elections to ‘try young people and see how it all pans out’ to me is out of synch.  It’s wrong on young people  and it puts down the Local Government.  

Once again locally, the timbre vis-a-vis young people is always a cautious one.  It’s as if we need to be on-guard, to have an ‘imma’ always ready up our sleeves and our liberal motif goes down the drain when it begets this part of the population.  How dreary.

If we really want young people engaged we need to sound convinced and not half-bake our oath. 

We need to decide if young people are to be involved in the community process and whether we really value young people’s positions or not. 

We need to make up our mind if it is ok for politics to be controversial and debatable and relevant to young people or not.

We need to see politicians settle on whether they are willing and ready to ensure that young people are treated not as ‘second class’ or ‘incomplete populaces’ or not. 

The good work that is being done by the Vote 16 Monitoring Group is commendable but let’s have the courage to go that extra mile. 

Having a political party take out a rabbit from its hat at the eleventh hour and ask for 16 year olds to vote in the referendum is equally silly, especially considering there was enough time to get the paper work in order, if we really wanted it to happen. 

I believe that voting will help young people to subscribe to civic duty.

Young people form their impressions and their understanding of the world from the experiences they come across. If they feel that their role in society is selective and discerning they will not be bothered. 

If they feel the community is believing in them not only by consenting them to vote in the Local Government elections but also to allow them to vote in the Spring Hunting referendum (and any future referenda), to vote and contest EU elections and General Elections I believe we will witness a surge in young people’s contribution. 

Politics, is the way we understand our country.  We are to avoid having youth enmeshed in a tokenistic manner. Young people want to be part of the change and to work for it – the time for half-baked measures is over!

Dr Andrew Azzopardi is Senior Lecturer, Department of Youth and Community Studies Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta & Broadcaster - Ghandi xi Nghid